The impact of the covid-19 pandemic on clothing factories around the world has been huge, find out more about how it has affected our partner factory in India.

The affects of Covid-19 on fashion supply chains

The Covid-19 Pandemic has had a massive impact on our lives here in the UK, restricting our activities and ability to meet with friends and family. It has also sadly led to a massive loss of life with millions of people falling ill and some still living with the long term affects of the disease. It has also impacted businesses and we have seen many fashion retailers struggle and close due to national lockdowns.

The impact of Covid-19 in developing countries has been even more devastating, and our thoughts are particularly with India, which is a country that we love and is where we make our clothing. We have many friends and colleagues there that have been adversely affected over the last 15 months, but particularly in recent weeks as the cases and deaths in India have risen exponentially. The situation is very uncertain and precarious for garment factories and individuals.

How Covid-19 is impacting our Indian factory

We work with a small factory in Bangalore that makes our clothing and accessories. We have been supporting the team through the Pandemic by providing financial support from the sale of our products.

I recently interviewed Beth, who runs Jacobswell in Bangalore. You can find out what life has been like, running a small fashion production unit in India by reading this blog post.

Woman sewing Jenerous clothing at a WFTO clothing factory in India

Interview with an Indian clothing manufacturer

1. How has the Covid-19 Pandemic affected life in India?

“Uncertainty in every aspects! Death tolls are rising, not enough oxygen supplies, hospital beds are not easily available and so are vaccines. For any emergencies for hospital beds and treatments for covid positive patients, we need to follow government protocol, which takes time before you get your treatment to start. Lots of people have lost jobs, resulting in depressions and higher crime rates, from petti thefts to even worse crimes. Day to day survival is a challenge for many. Educational institutions are hampered, small companies getting shutdown. In a nutshell, the normal life that we know have turned upside down.”

2. What have been the implications of Covid on your factory?

How the Covid-19 pandemic has affected fashion supply chains - Ruth one of the workers at Jacobswell holding up a I made your clothes sign — Ruth one of the factory workers holding up an ‘I made your clothes’ sign.

“Jacobs Well is in no place to survive if not for the help with the go-funding and the immense effort taken by the team at the FWH (UK charity). Work order sizes have been cut down. whatever small orders on our way might not reach us on time as the suppliers and fabric printers themselves are struggling due to Covid. Even the shipping agencies and custom clearances sometimes gets delayed too. we have even lost clients due to all these reasons listed.”

3. What have the impact been on your team?

“Our families are struggling as most of the women' s spouses are losing jobs, or not having enough work as they are daily wages workers. The stress level is high on everyone, specially when there is no certainty about the future. And the existing family income is reduced, and is not enough to sustain when the rent amount and the bills are still the same, if not more.”

4. Is there a particular story of one of your team that you could share?

“Right now Ruth and her husband are under heavy stress. Her husband is an Uber driving partner and they had taken a heavy loan towards buying a basic sedan car to be able to partner with the company. They have to pay 10,000rs towards instalment every month for 5 years. But lately they are having a tough time even to put petrol/fuel to run the taxi. She has 2 children and needs to pay for their tuition fees too.”

6. How have you had to adapt or change the way Jacobs Well functions?

The impact of covid-19 on the fashion industry - lady sewing at sewing machine — A worker sits working at a sewing machine in India

“1.We have opened up to local couture orders to survive.

2. We have started to accept small orders from existing clients (as they too are struggling with their sales)

3. We have made arrangements to work with two local upcoming brands to try out their 'yet-to-launch' collections with small commitments that will be ongoing in a very small way, while hoping that they will be able to take off with flying colours and stay steady with us.”

7. As a WFTO factory have you reacted and responded differently to other factories? (We are aware that lots of garment workers have lost their jobs or had their pay reduced due to Covid.)

How Covid is affecting fashion suppliers - Girish sews at Jacobswell — Girish sews our collection at Jacobswell, India

“We, by the grace of God, have a backbone, FWH (UK Charity), backing us, and beautiful clients like you, who joined hands and sustained us through our tough days, we are very fortunate and haven't had to let anyone go to date. We also have not reduced any ones salaries.”

8. What do you think are the challenges that will continue for your factory over the coming months?

“We begin lockdown from 27th April which will last for the next two weeks. The challenges that will continue will be,

1. We won’t be able to carry out the orders we have in hand.

2. New orders are unlikely to come by easily.

3. We won't be able to pay the rent, salaries, and other essential bills

If the government will allow garment factories to function again, we will work normally. But, if not, it will be extremely hard, as we are used to working as a team together in the same space. Working from home is almost totally impossible as most have no space at home, especially for cutting and ironing.”

9. How can people in the UK support factories like Jacobs Well through this challenging time?

“1. Sustaining the women with their salaries.

2. Help us pay rentals for the premises and electricity bills.”

Woman working at a WFTO Fair Trade factory in India where she has empowering work

How the Covid-19 Pandemic has affected fashion supply chains - Conclusion

This interview clearly shows the immense pressure that small businesses like our garment factory are under at the moment. There are no government support schemes in place to support them through this pandemic and life is full of uncertainty.

We are actively supporting Jacobs Well and want to thank everyone that has donated or bought from us, enabling us to make a significant difference for the workers and their extended families. You can find out more about our impact here.